Pantheon Build Guide by elkoto

Introduction

Hi,
thank you for reading my Pantheon Guide.
After playing many succesful games with Pantheon I decided to write a guide . I tried to find a balance between offense and defense. You will not be as tanky as other top lane bruisers endgame, but you will deal tons of damage with as much durability as possible. So you can do your job in team fights properly: jump on a carry and destroy him within seconds.

And don't forget: you are a real spartan ! every kill belongs to you! It's an honor for the enemies to die from your spear.
Not my video, but have fun ;) credits go to youtube user "MightyTeapot"

Pros / Cons

Pros

- Great Damage and fun to play
- Good harrass with Spear Shot
- Big range Grand Skyfall Perfect to protect a turret ,smash into a teamfight or catch up to a fleeing enemy
- Great Farm with Heartseeker Strike
- Nice shield through Aegis Protection
- Great Flash + Aegis of Zeonia Combo

Cons

- You need practice to aim Grand Skyfall, because of the 3,5 sec delay.
- You have no escape mechanism except flash
- You need good farm early game
- It's important to have an eye on your mana don't overuse your Spear Early Game.

Games

Here are some of my recent games with Pantheon:

First time facing Nami on top lane. I buyed Mercury's Treads early for additional magic resist. Against Nami alone the lane was no problem. I dealt more damage than she could heal, but sadly I died a few times on my lane, because of Jungle Shaco and Mid Evelynn stealth ganks. My bad for not getting an early Vision Ward


This game was against Shen on the top lane. I was able to go fast 2-0 in front and to push my tower soon at this point our team was behind, because bot lane gave Ezrael an early killing streak. I started to roam after enemy top tower was down and with some good teamfights we were able to turn this game around.

Masteries

I put 21 points in the attacking masteries and 9 in the defense masteries.

OFFENSE

Summoner's Wrath - 1/1 : As long as Ignite is on cooldown your AP and AD is increased by 5. This is especially early game a big adavantage.

Sorcery - 4/4 : This skill will give you 4% cooldown reduction. CDR is a nice stat for Pantheon, because your Spear Shot is a spammable skill.

Deadliness - 4/4 : A little AD boost, a must-have to skill the armor penetration buff.

Destruction - This was point 20 and I chose the additonal 5 % damage over +1,5 AD or +1 % attack speed, because I think from those three this talent helps the most.

Weapon Expertise - 1/1 : Armor penetration works very well with Pantheon. It was nerfed from 10 % to 8 % in the last patch , but still a good use for the skill point.

Havoc - 3/3 : Increase the damage dealt by 2 %. I prefer this mastery over the flat AD buff or tthe attack speed buff, because I think it benefits Pantheon more than the other masteries.

Lethality - 2/2 : 10% more critical strike damage is a nice bonus to finish off enemies with your Heartseeker Strike passive.

Frenzy - 1/1 : This talent is very nice for Pantheon in my opinion, because you auto-crit low HP enemies and in a teamfight the increased attack speed helps you recharging your shield faster.

Sunder - 3/3 : Armor penetration is an important stat for Pantheon so I suggest take the 6 additional points.

Executioner - 1/1: Increases the damage dealt by 5 % if your target is below 50 health. This skill will help you to finish the enemies off and it works very well with Heartseeker Strike passive.

DEFENSE

Durability - 4/4: I like to stack the to health masteries, because Pantheon is early game relatively squishy compared to other bruisers. So the +6 health early game and the +108 health late game are quite helpful.

Hardiness - 3/3: You gain 6 additional armor from this skill. Max this instead of magic resistance because on the toplane you will mostly encounter AD bruisers.

Resistance - 1/3: Gives you 2 additional magic resist. On top lane you will mostly encounter AD bruiser so this talent has low priority.

Veteran's Scars - As is said this makes you especially early game not that squishy and gives you more durability to stay longer in your lane.

Runes

- Greater Mark of Armor Penetration These runes are great to support your early game damage even against enemy champions with early armor on the top lane. I prefer the armor penetration, flat damage is easily countered with armor.

- Greater Seal of Armor Very important early game. The additional armor can save your *** against other Offtanks on the Toplane like Riven or Irelia

- Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist I take the per Level Glyph, because in my experience the AP Damage is not extremely high early game. When the AP Carries level up their spells your magic resistance grows as well. Of course you can take Greater Glyph of Magic Resist, especially when laning against an AP Sololaner like Vladimir

- Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage Really help boost your damage against champions early game and helps a lot with last hitting minions!

Summoner Spells

Summoner Spells

The following summoner spells are viable for Pantheon in my experience:

- Flash . Must have skill for Pantheon, because this will be your only escape mechanism, besides running into the bush and ulti away. Also Flash + Aegis of Zeonia is a great combo. Or you can flash to a low life enemy just to give him the last critical autoattack due to your 100% crit chance when the enemy champion is under 15% life.

- Ignite. My favourite second summoner spell. Gives that little bit of damage to get the kill. Very nice to bring an enemy champion under 15% HP so that the Passive of your Heartseeker Strike can trigger.

- Exhaust. I used this summoner spell before I switched to Ignite. Can help to catch a fleeing enemy with your Aegis of Zeonia or to shut down a feeded enemy.

- Ghost. Ghost is a nice spell and would work with Pantheon, but the choice is Flash or Ghost and I stick with Flash as Summoner Spell.

These are in my opinion the four Summoner spells you could use for Pantheon.

The other spells don't fit on Pantheon in my opinion:

- Clarity. Yes you need much mana for your spears, but don't throw spear after spear think if the spear is really worth his mana. If you do this you shouldn't have any mana problems early game.

- Teleport. You don't need a teleport. As long as you are not getting totally destroyed pre level 6 you don't need it. When you are facing a hard lane pre lvl 6 just play defensively, retreat on lvl 6, buy new stuff and go back to your lane with your ultimate to deny free farm and tower attacks.

- Cleanse. Can be helpful against tons of CC, but you can better buy Quicksilver Sash than using a summoner spell for this.

- Clairvoyance. You are not the supporter.

- Heal. This is not needed! You have your healing pots. Don't overextend when you are on low HP and after playing Panth for a while you will know when to engage for a kill and when you should back off if you're not suicidal. So no surprising "oh **** I need a heal".

I think I don't need to mention the other Summoner Spells

Ability Explanation

- Aegis Protection: This passive restores an shield after 4 auto attacks which will block the next incoming normal attack that deals more than 40 damage. Excellent passive to block Parrrley , Mystic Shot or turret shots.

- Spear Shot (Q): This is your biggest damage source early game so try to harrass the enemy as much as possible every creep he tries to kill should hurt him. Remember Spear Shot also benefits from the passive of Heartseeker Strike, but the spear just makes a minicrit for 150% damage other than the normal 200% critical strike damage.

- Aegis of Zeonia (W): Ideal gapcloser. The stun last just 1 second, but this should still be enough time to penetrate your enemy with a max damage Heartseeker Strike.
Another important point is that using Aegis of Zeonia will trigger your passive. Like a real Spartan you never go into battle without your shield.

- Heartseeker Strike (E): Not so strong early game, but it will destroy squishy enemies in the mid and late game. Use this skill always directly after your stun for the full effect.

- Grand Skyfall (R): The channeling of this spell is very long and the giant red circle on the ground is not very unsuspicious. So try to use it more as a teleport skill to defend your tower or to cut the way of fleeing enemies.
When you want to use it in a teamfight: hide in the bushes so the enemies can't see you channeling your Ultimate. Start it as soon as the fight begins, because it will take a few seconds until you smash on the ground, ideally hitting all enemies, because they are CC'd.
Another tip: The channeling of your Ultimate is two phases long.The first phase on the ground before jump-off where all your skills are disabled and the phase when Pantheon is in the air during the second phase you can already use Aegis of Zeonia and while in air your stun becomes increased range and you jump on the target immediately after the landing, giving the enemy team nearly no time to stun you.

Ability Sequence Order

Playstyle

Basics

This would be your perfect combination when you are trying to get the kill: ->->-> ->

This combination can change situationally. You should always ignite a Nasus for example when he is using his Ultimate.

Early Game

Concentrate on your farm early game. Play defensively and just lasthit minions with your auto attack or your Spear Shot. Don't go 1on1 before you hit Level 4 you will probably lose the fight. In most cases the enemy champion will push you under your turret. Now try to farm as efficient as possible under your turret. Melee creeps die after two tower shots and one autoattack. Caster creeps die after one tower shot and two autoattacks, so hit them one time before the tower does, because you have not the time for two autoattacks during two tower shots.
When you hit Level 4 you have your complete combo and your Spear Shot Level 2. Now begin to harrass your enemy with the spear, because the damage on Level 1 Spear Shot is too low and most toplaners don't really care about the damage and the amount of mana you need for a Spear Shot is constant, that means you will pay 45 mana for a Lvl 1 spear, but also 45 mana for a Lvl 2 (3,4,5) spear.
I have made the experience that most people underestimate Pantheon at this point in the game. You begin to throw 3-4 Spears at your enemy which will hurt quite a bit due to your Greater Mark of Armor Penetration and Greater Quintessence of Armor Penetration. When they are low enough spear and stun them and use the rotation I mentioned before. In 9 out of 10 games I get an early kill with this playstyle.
In the best case you are able to kill your enemy pre-lvl 6. Use your time good when you are alone on the lane. Farm,farm,farm! Try to reach lvl 6 as soon as possible so you can go back knowing that you can use Grand Skyfall if your tower is under attack.
If you having trouble against your lane enemy don't hesitate and ask your jungler for help on an even lane the jungler can be the different between victory and defeat.

Mid Game

When you already picked up a kill or two you should be able to outfarm your opponent. Always outzone your enemy so he can't get any farm. Always have a look of your Spear Shot range and hit him if possible. When he is low enough stun him with Aegis of Zeonia and take him out. Flash + Aegis of Zeonia is very helpful to secure the kill. For a short duration you can chase them under the tower when your Aegis Protection is up, but remember you can block just ONE turretshot.
Try to push your tower so you can help out mid or botlane.

End Game:

End game you'll have to play carefully with Pantheon. You should never initiate with your Aegis of Zeonia this will end in a painful death. You can still destroy an AP or AD-carry, but pay attention especially for more tanky offtanks than you ,like Olaf or Irelia.

Teamfights

In teamfights you try to charge for the carries of course. Try to jump over the melee bruisers and tanks with your Aegis of Zeonia and focus a carry. It depends often on how your team works with you in team fights. When you are the only one who jumps to ,for example Malzahar and Ashe, you will mostly die very fast.
When you're facing an enemy team with much CC then buy Quicksilver Slash.

How to survive a Gank on Sololane:

First: ALWAYS buy at least a Sight Ward. This is the only way to push and farm without fear of the jungler. When the jungler comes out of the bush always take the path trough the bushes on top of your lane and if necessary you jump out of the bush with your Aegis of Zeonia to stun the ganker, who will stand nearer to your turret than you are in most cases. After the stun you can run away or Flash away. This depends on the jungler. When an Udyr charged at you with his stun loaded you stun him first and flash directly after the stun so he has no chance to stun you and secure his laner the kill.

Items

Core Items

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The Brutalizer is the first thing you buy after your normal boots. I have the feeling this thing is made for Pantheon. It gives you +25 attack damage which is much early game + 10% cooldown reduction and also +15 armor penetration.

The Black Cleaver. After the S3 buff this item is essential. No longer waiting for 1650 gold for the B.F Sword. You can build it right out of brutalizer and you will get +250 health and +50 damage additional to the +15 armor penetration and 10% CDR. The passive is also very nice. Dealing physical damage will lower the armor of the target for 7,5% per stack and the stacks are maxed at 4. If placed correctly Pantheons Heartseeker will apply all 4 stacks on the enemy.

Phage: After you built the Black Cleaver go for Phage. The additional health is an important factor, otherwise you will be too squishy mid game.

Mid game

The choice of boots is up to you, because it's very situational, I personally prefer Berserker's Greaves to faster recharge my shield, but when you are facing an AP enemy on your lane Mercury's Treads would be the better choice.

Frozen Mallet Usually after The Black Cleaver I build up the Frozen Mallet. The slow helps to catch fleeing enemys and the additonal healt gives you the needed sustain.

Hexdrinker You can build this even before Frozen Mallet when an AP champ is on a killing streak. At this point in the game the enemy AP mostly have their Rabadon's Deathcap. You can block most AD abilities with your shield, but Panth is vulnerable to the high AP damage so the additional magic resist and the Hexdrinker shield help against that.

Lategame

Maw of Malmortius - Gives more magic resist and attack damage than Hexdrinker, plus the shield is stronger and you get a passive that increases your attack damage based on your missing health (+1 AD for every 2,5% health missing).

The Bloodthirster - If no high MR is needed you can build this item directly after the Hexdrinker. You buy this to simply boost your AD, because the possible +100 (base 70 +30) AD are the highest AD on any item. The +12% (+6%) lifesteal are a nice sideffect, but you can't use it efficiently, because you, as an AD caster, are using your spells which are not working with life steal.

Guardian Angel - I like to finish my build with this item. Besides the nice armor and magic resistance, the passive can really turn a teamfight around, because after your ressurection you can take out low HP enemies very fast.

Boot Enchantment: Furor] This is really up to you. The +15 movement speed from Enchantment: Alacrity are nice, but I prefer the Furor enchantment. It gives you 12% movement speed for 2 seconds after dealing damage with an attack or spell to a single target. It's a nice tool to engage in a fight. You start with your spear, this proccs the movement speed buff so it's even harder for the enemy to avoid getting stunned from your Aegis.


and of course ... Sight Ward Vision Ward - When you know that the enemy has warded the top river, buy and destroy their ward. Without this your jungler won't be able to gank your lane properly.

Situational Items

There are many situational items you can buy. Don't play blind after this guide! Use your own head in the game!

Against heavy AD Teams:

Sunfire Cape - some additonal health and armor will help you stay alive and the passive damage aura works well with Aegis of Zeonia, because you are near their carry in no time.

Thornmail - gives you a huge amount of armor and helps really a lot against an enemy AD carry.

Against heavy AP/ CC teams:

Mercurial Scimitar Nice new item to build out of Quicksilver Sash. Gives attack damage , magic resist and a free cleanse. If you prefer this item feel free to exchange it with Maw of Malmortius

Mercury's Treads Increases your tenacity. In combination with Quicksilver Sash very helpful against CC teams.

Against heavy armor team

Last Whisper When the enemy team stacks armor you should get this item to increase your armor penetration and decrease the enemies life.

Warding and Positioning

The following image shows you where to put your wards and on which path the enemy jungler can gank you:


Green: This are the bushes which are your hiding place when you are getting ganked. Run in and jump with Aegis of Zeonia out of the bush and get under your tower as fast as possible.

Blue: This is were you should place your Sight Ward.It's the bush at the beginning of the river.
After this you are relatively safe, depending on the jungler. A Fiddlesticks, Shaco, Evelynn are very dangerous because the can surprise you with stealth or when facing Fiddle with an Ultimate from behind the wall.
Always remember you are warding one way to your lane but there are 3 other ways, so don't overextend.

I marked the other ways with orange. The enemy jungler can choose way 1 or 2 to avoid your wards and gank you from the tri bush ( no 1) or he hides in the bushes on your lane (no 2). It is even possible that the jungler will gank you through your own jungle (no 3). In most cases from this position the lane enemy and jungler will try to tower dive you so take care that skills like Bandage Toss from Amumu won't hit you.

Always look out for 'ss' or 'mia' calls of your team mates. Try to follow the enemy jungler on the map aswell. If he is ganking botlane you are relatively safe so try to provoke a fight and maybe catch a kill. Now, when following the minimap, you see the enemy jungler ganking mid. If needed you can gank the gank with your Ultimate.
So and after the mid gank you can be sure the jungler will come top for the next gank.
Just think what you would do next as jungler. Is your lane pushed till the enemy tower? You are most likely the next gank victim!.

Summary/Credits

Pantheon is extremely fun to play. Rocking Toplane with this Build is always very nice to play.
Upvote if you like the guide and when you downvote it please inform me

why!

. I want to make this guide better and I'm open for criticism.

Feel free to test this guide in my opinion Pantheon is even after more than 300 played games with him always fun.


Big thank you to the user Jhoijhoi for his "How to make a Guide"-Guide!
also credits to "MightyTeapot" for his Pantheon pentasteal video!


-elkoto